Lakewood stands together for wrestling coach Roger Atwood

Friends and family of Lakewood wrestling coach Roger Atwood are holding a Walk For Coach Atwood as he battles Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
Dave Weidig, Reporter

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Frankie Atwood, Amanda Schmitt and Amy Gower stand outside Lancers Stadium, which on Saturday will host the Walk For Coach Atwood from noon to 4 p.m. Roger Atwood, Lakewood's head varsity wrestling coach, has been battling a rare form of Hodgkin's Lymphoma since the end of last wrestling season.(Photo11: Sara C. Tobia/The Advocate)Buy Photo

This, in the case of Lakewood's head varsity wrestling coach, is a rare form of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Atwood has been battling it for months, and his family and friends have held various fundraisers to help he, his wife and two children offset the numerous costs. This Saturday, they will hold the Walk For Coach Atwood at Lancer Stadium, not just to raise money, but cancer awareness. It will be held from noon to 4 p.m.

"He has chemotherapy on Friday, and it knocks him out for four or five days," said Atwood's cousin, Amy Gower. "But we're going to do everything we can to make sure he feels like he's there, like Facebook Live."

"He was a little upset he can't be there," Frankie Atwood said. "We just hope people show up for the support. You don't even have to walk. Just sit in the stands if you want."

Amanda Schmitt, the girlfriend of Roger Atwood's best friend David Williams, said it's not about the money for Roger. "He just wants to bring the Lakewood community together," she said. "He wanted us to do something where everyone can come, including kids."

"He just really wants to raise cancer awareness," Gower said. "We're really thankful to (athletic director) Scott Harris for his help. Dave Dernberger, the announcer for the home football games, was nice enough to do the announcing." Lakewood will open its concession stands and donate a portion of the proceeds.

Ironically, Atwood was helping one his wrestlers, senior Dane Black, deal with cancer when he was diagnosed at the end of last wrestling season. Black is still fighting it and now has Atwood with him as they team up to stand together against the disease.

Not long after Black's surgery, following a poker run fundraiser for him, Atwood discovered a lump on his neck. "It started bothering him, and I told him, 'you need to get it checked,'" Frankie said. "They were supposed to take one lymph node out, and they took five. They all tested positive."

"It spread to his neck, shoulders, spine and groin," Gower said. "They found it in his bone marrow as well. It's in Stage 4, which is as high as it can go."

At the Ohio State University James Canyercer Center, Atwood was falling asleep from his first round of chemo. But he woke up attend to an important matter. "Roger pushed Dane in his wheelchair out of the hospital," Schmitt said. "It was one of the most emotional things to watch. They feed off each other."

"Roger said, 'if Dane can do it, I have to do it,'" Gower said. "That's why I think he's going to get through this."

Frankie Atwood described her 32-year-old brother, a 2004 Lakewood graduate, as the "class clown. He's always trying to put someone in a great mood. On Oct. 14, it will be four years since we lost our mother, and he's had some rough things happen to him in his life. But he always tries to stay positive, especially with his wrestlers."

Gower said a woman who attended Lakewood when Roger did recalled on Facebook how she was having trouble with classmates at school, and he supported her and lifted her up. "That's just the way he is," she said.

Atwood and his wife, Brandi, have two children. Daughter Kyleigh is 14 and attends Licking Valley, while stepson Dorrian Boland is 15 and goes to Heath. In addition to coaching wrestling, Roger works at General Fasteners in Hebron. He was unable to work for a few months due to the pain. "But he's actually gone back to work," Gower said. "He's been there 11 years, and does not want to lose his job."

A car wash, huge, four-day bake sale, T-shirt sale and a golf outing have already been held for the Atwood family. "But he doesn't want pity," Schmitt said. "After the golf outing, he didn't feel good at all, but he still showed up and shook hands with everyone."

Gower related how a couple of years ago, a young kid was killed locally in a car accident. "Roger didn't even know him, but he still went on Facebook Live, asking people to come out to a benefit," she said.

The bake sale was something to behold. The lobby of Pizza Cottage in Buckeye Lake, while Frankie Atwood and Schmitt work, was completely filled with baked goods. "We just baked, baked and baked," Gower said.

The bake sale was held during the MOPAR event at nearby National Trail Raceway, and Gower talked to a man from Florida. "He told me how he had Stage 3 (cancer), and how he had beaten it," she said. "It helped me keep the faith."

Atwood was diagnosed with a rare form of the disease, between Hodgkin's Lymphoma and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. In addition to T-shirts, green bracelets are being sold about Non-Hodgkin's, and purple bracelets. The T-shirts and bracelets have one thing in common. The words "We Stand Together."

Gower has done numerous breast cancer walks. She wants to continue the Walk For Coach Atwood. "Even after he beats this, we want to do this every year, and donate annually to the Lymphoma Foundation," she said.